Flower, Fruit, Seeds: 4-part trumpet-shaped yellow to golded yellow flowers run the length of the bare branches before the leaves appear. The flower display lasts about a month between February and April.

Care & Maintenance: as with many basal growers, thin at the base (prune after bloom 1/3 of the stems to the ground starting with oldest branches and weak or dead wood). Looks best without cutback, but will tolerate pruning.

Comments: like the flowering quince, the early blooming forsythia is a delight with it's yellow sprays in the late winter/early spring landscape. After it blooms it is rather non-descript, but blends nicely with other background shrubs.